Hoarding creates a financial mess. Can you save money by decluttering your house?

By Kate Jones

UpdatedDecember 2, 2016 — 10.29amfirst published at 12.15am

It was just like any other call for help. Male baby boomer, single, trapped in a home full of "treasures".

But this time professional organiser Rebecca Mezzino was in for a surprise. While helping clean and sort the man's possessions, Mezzino found an unbanked cheque for $20,000. Then another worth $30,000 and another, until she had discovered a total of $280,000 in uncashed cheques.

Lindy LeCornu hired a professional organiser to help her sort out her study and has applied the techniques herself since moving house.Credit:James Elsby

"It had all just got lost in his house," she explains.

Hoarders face myriad personal problems, not least of them financial. From losing bills, cheques and cash amid the sheer scale of belongings in their homes to eventually losing their jobs - compulsive hoarders face major difficulties in organising their financial affairs.

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Former hoarder Lee Shuer co-founded Buried in Treasures workshops in the US and regularly gives advice to Australian support groups.

Defined as "the acquisition of and failure to discard a large numbers of possessions resulting in clutter that precludes the use of living spaces in the manner for which those spaces were designed", hoarding is now a recognised mental health disorder.

A similar condition, impulsive acquiring or compulsive buying, afflicts people to a lesser extent. Unlike hoarders, impulsive acquirers are able to sell or throw away goods they have purchased or collected.

Cate Hale, Living Conditions coordinator at Woden Community Services in Canberra, runs Buried in Treasures workshops to help hoarders overcome their destructive habits. She says most who come along are in a state of financial and emotional distress.

Rebecca Mezzino is a professional organiser.

"We see people who are paying for one or even two storage units," she says.

"It can start as a way of bringing peace back to the house, but the stress comes back because of the financial load."

Hoarders are typically spendthrifts who are extremely resourceful, which leads them to buy second-hand goods or to collect broken items. They know how to stretch a dollar, but most of their savings are pumped back into amassing their belongings.

Any value in the goods they gather is difficult to realise because hoarders commonly cannot bear to part with their possessions, Hale says.

"There's the potential for financial benefit if they recover and then are able to move things on, but the sticking point is letting go," she says. "Each and every item for them holds memories and so each and every item can cause pain if they have to think about getting rid of it.

"So they'll often get overwhelmed and stop in the process. They just can't get to the point of choosing which things they will keep."

Former hoarder Lee Shuer, who helped set up the Buried in Treasures workshops in the US, regularly gives advice based on his experiences to Australian support groups. He says he once valued his "stuff" over money, which created spiralling cash problems.

"When I was at the height of my acquiring, I was spending money I didn't have on things I didn't need," he says.

"Money flowed through my fingers like water. Money wasn't as important to me as the stuff I could buy with it.

"This meant that if I had bills and couldn't pay them, I would incur late fees."

Decluttering has been a craze since the release of Marie Kondo's best-selling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organising a few years ago. With its minimalist themes and anti-consumerism sentiments that hint at Buddhist-like contentment, the decluttering movement has won many fans.

Worth keeping

But with the satisfaction of clearing out the crap comes the risk of going overboard. Sleegers suggests using a checklist to ensure items of sentimental value don't end up in the rubbish.

"There is always a risk that you may make a decision to let go of something and have regrets," she says.

"Consider developing some criteria to assist you in making decisions so that, should you reconsider, you can sit a little easier knowing that you made an informed decision in that moment."

Another potential downside lies in throwing out so many belongings there is no choice but to keep buying new things. This can be avoided by keeping style and practicalities top of mind.

"To find the right balance for you, establish a vision for your home encompassing both function and aesthetics," Sleegers advises.

Mezzino describes herself as a declutter coach and helps a range of people from hoarders to those who just don't have the time to organise their belongings.

"It's about helping people change the way they view their belongings and change the relationship they have with their belongings, so it's a little bit more of a productive, helpful relationship and less of a destructive one," she says.

"So many people have destructive relationships with belongings and it just paralyses them and they can't o anything about it, it's like an addiction or a mental illness."

"The biggest benefit all of my clients have, and it's a bit of a surprise for them, is they start shopping more wisely," she says. "So if they've decluttered their pantry, next time they go shopping they know they've already got three tins of baked beans and they know they don't need any more.

"They're less likely to buy on impulse after decluttering."

Lost real estate

It was a lesson learned by Adelaide's Lindy LeCornu who hired Mezzino for a day and a half to organise her husband's messy study.

"The problem was we had this house that had three bedrooms and a study and one room was completely unusable," she says.

"It was lost real estate, if you like, in the house. We're not talking ugly hoarder stuff, we're just talking accumulated books and papers and yes, administrationy things."

The experience set LeCornu on a new path. She now declutters regularly – a process that helps her save extra cash for travel.

"There is that sense of organisation, everything has it's own place so you can stocktake, if you like, and not overbuy," she says. "I do things like limiting my wardrobe by donating my shoes before I buy more. I do lots of donations to charities and refugee associations, so I make regular trips to op-shops where I buy the odd thing."

Help for hoarders

Reduce what's coming in. Lots of small purchases add up to a small fortune over time, says Bec Shuer from Mutual Support Consulting. Before buying, ask yourself "Does acquiring this help me reach my decluttering goal?", "Can I really afford this?" and "Do I have a place to put this that won't add to my clutter?".

Replace acquiring "stuff" with acquiring experiences. Recognise that getting out of the house is important for mental and physical health. Create goals – it could be a simple lunch or a long holiday – you can achieve by cutting back the clutter and getting more from life.

Get help. Hoarders are notoriously private about their habits and commonly feel shame, which stops them from seeking help from others. Start online. Catholic Healthcare's hoarding and squalor website hsru.com.au is a one-stop shop for information, links to support groups and help for family and friends. hoardingresources.org.au is mainly for community workers, but features lots of helpful references.